The products of the present invention find application as milk powder replacer. These products can be applied in feed and food products.
In relation to food applications, there is a big concern in finding suitable and cheap products as milk replacers for babies, elderly persons and everybody in need for having appropriate intake of proteins.
In relation to animal feed, there is a big concern in feeding young animals, especially young ruminants however, other animals like pets are not excluded. Young calves, lambs and pigs depend on mother's milk to provide nourishment during the period when the rumen and other digestive functions have not yet developed. Young animals are therefore unable to utilize the feed consumed by adult animals. For calves this period comprises two stages. The first stage is the so-called pre-ruminant stage i.e. when the digestive functions are more akin to those of monogastric animals. During the second stage the rumen is developing but is not yet capable of fully performing the animals needs. Depending on the type of food offered and the intended use of the animals the pre-ruminant stage may be shorter or longer. Because of the high costs and inconvenience of feeding liquid cow's milk, artificial milk replacers have been developed. Milk replacers contain the following ingredients; milk proteins, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Milk proteins generally used are whey proteins and dried skim milk powder manufactured from cow's milk.
The physico-chemical and nutritional characteristics of the milk proteins have been shown to be of such a nature that replacement with other proteins gives rise to a lot of problems. When artificial milk replacers are made the finished product contains a series of components and care should be taken that the mixture has the right dispersibility, or solubility in water. Moreover, care has to be taken that the color, taste and smell are acceptable.
The supply and costs of skinned milk powder make it attractive to try to find other protein sources for pre-ruminant or young ruminant feed purposes, and food purposes. A lot of effort has been spend on trying to find or develop suitable protein sources for example, efforts have been made to develop products starting from soya bean meal, from fish meal, and from microbial sources such as yeasts. It has turned out that the finding of a suitable alternative protein source is not a straightforward process. In particular problems have occurred with the solubility and suspendibility of products, moreover inadequate growth due to the presence of anti-nutritional factors and bad feed conversion has often been observed.
European patent EP 0 479 596 discloses a process for treating sources of vegetable protein and carbohydrate comprising, preparing an aqueous slurry of vegetable proteins and carbohydrates; adjusting the pH of the slurry between 3.5 and 6; pretreating the slurry with a viscosity reducing agent (an enzyme or an anti-oxidant); heating the slurry; cooling and hydrolysing with a hydrolysing agent from a source of alpha-galactosidase.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,138,038 discloses protein partial degradation products obtainable from grain proteins by specific degradation treatment. The products are useful as quality improving agents for various food stuffs, as surface active agents and as dispersing agents for particles.
WO 00/48474 relates to a calf milk replacer composition comprising from 1 to 20 parts by weight of vegetable protein concentrate or isolate, and from 8 to 20 parts by weight of a carbohydrate source together with whey powder and/or delactose whey powder and/or whey protein concentrate, fat and additives. According to the invention it is essential that the carbohydrate source is a combination of processed starch and maltodextrin wherein the maltodextrin is characterized by its DE-value between 10 and 35.
EP 0 446 987 relates to a composition for the preparation of artificial calf milk which composition contains carbohydrates, lactoproteins, vegetable proteins and fat wherein at least part of the vegetable protein consists of soluble wheat protein.
Derwent Abstract of HU 54292 describes a lactic acid rich animal feed stuff substituting milk prepared from dairy products.
From the above references and in the general literature it appears that vegetable proteins are considered as an interesting protein source because they are cheap and available in large quantities.
However, a simple process for preparing a suitable composition completed with free amino acids in liquid form, and minerals is needed.
The current invention provides a composition suitable as milk replacer in food and feed applications and a simplified economic process for preparing said composition is provided as well.